The church as the fullness is mysterious and abstract, but the lampstands are very concrete. A lampstand is not mysterious, but very solid. When you pray much and get into this item in the holy Word, you will realize that the sign, the symbol, of the lampstand is not mysterious, but its significance is far beyond our understanding. From my youth, I have paid much attention to this item in the New Testament. I read a certain spiritual paper published in London, and the front cover always had a picture of a lampstand on it. As I was reading that paper I always wondered what the lampstand was. The writer of this paper gave a number of messages on the pure, golden lampstand and he mostly stressed one point—the pureness of the gold of the lampstand. This was very helpful in the spiritual life, but I still did not know what the main significance of the lampstand was. Later, I received some help to see that the lampstand is for shining in the night, to enlighten in the dark age. In the dark night there is the need of the light, and the churches are the lampstands holding the lamps to shine and enlighten. Although this is a correct understanding, I still felt that this was too superficial. Even little children know that a lampstand is for enlightening. I still wanted to see why it was a golden lampstand. Why are the lampstands not made of glass or some other material?
The lampstands as signs signifying the churches are made of pure gold. When reading this, some of the saints may feel that they have never seen a church so golden. They may feel that the churches they have seen are “muddy” or at best “wooden.” Is the church in your locality muddy, wooden, or golden? On the night of a glorious meeting of the church you may feel that the church is golden, but the next day something will happen to make you feel that the church is altogether muddy. We must realize that we have our perspective of the church, and God has His. We think that our perspective is very smart, sharp, and to the point, but God’s perspective is absolutely different from ours.
I still remember an incident that happened in a prayer meeting in Shanghai nearly forty years ago. A very elderly sister prayed in a very genuine way, crying to the Lord. Her prayer was long, earnest, and you may say that it was even powerful. She was lamenting the fact that the church was so weak with many shortcomings. According to her prayer, the church in Shanghai was muddy. Immediately after her prayer, Brother Nee prayed with praise for the church. He praised the Lord for the fact that His church was wonderful and he quoted Balaam’s prayer concerning Israel in Numbers 23 where Balaam said that God “hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel” (v. 21). Balaam also went on to say concerning Israel, “Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee” (24:9). This incident shocked all the saints. There were two kinds of prayers. One prayer described the church there as being weak, and another prayer uplifted the church to the heavens. Of these two prayers, which would you say was right? Actually, one prayer was right from the human perspective, and the other prayer was right from the heavenly angle. I was told that the elderly sister who prayed her prayer went back home weeping and regretting for her natural concept concerning the church.
Many times my feeling concerning myself was that I was worse than muddy. When Moses was called by God, he told the Lord that the Egyptians would not believe that the Lord had appeared unto him (Exo. 4:1). One of the signs which the Lord gave Moses to perform is in Exodus 4:6-7. The Lord told Moses to put his hand into his bosom. Moses did this and when he took it out, his hand was leprous. When Moses put his hand back into his bosom again and took it out, his hand became as it once was. Moses discovered through this sign that his inward nature was leprous. How could a leprous person be called by God? In God’s heavenly perspective, however, Moses was a great vessel for God’s use. God had already given Moses a vision of a flame of fire burning in a bush and yet the bush was not consumed (Exo. 3:2). God does not use what we have as the burning fuel. God Himself is the fuel, the fire, burning within us. We should not look at ourselves since we are not worth looking at. If any brothers were to stay with one another for approximately one week, they would discover that none of them are “golden brothers.” On the other hand, we all need to realize that because we have received the Lord, we have something golden in us. We all need to praise the Lord that we do have some amount of gold in us.
Many of us have been in the church life for years and we do not have much realization that we have grown that much. According to our human perspective, there is too much waste of time. We must remember that to the Lord one thousand years is as one day (2 Pet. 3:8). According to God’s perspective even fifty years is not such a long time. None of us should be disappointed concerning our growth in life.
I am not encouraging you not to grow, but our growth in life is not up to us. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God made to grow.” Last night in the meeting you all may have shouted that the church in your locality is golden. The next morning, however, a phone call may have been made which was full of gossip, discrediting the church. Of course, we all should hate gossip in the church life, but sometimes matters such as this may be of the Lord’s sovereignty. I do not encourage people to gossip, but we must realize that the Lord is sovereign over everything that happens in the church life.
We must realize that even during Paul’s time there was not a church which was that good. I once heard a sermon many years ago telling the people in the congregation that the church in Philippi was the best church. When I studied the book of Philippians, however, I discovered that even the church in Philippi was not good because among them there were dissenting ones (4:2; 2:2). No church, humanly speaking, is not muddy. Also, from the human point of view no church is golden. God, however, knows that in you and in me there is an amount of gold (2 Cor. 4:7).